


Mahariel

by friendlybomber



Series: Ethelan Mahariel Sabrae [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Character Study, Ethelan Mahariel Sabrae, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 05:21:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10869960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friendlybomber/pseuds/friendlybomber
Summary: Mahariel was a family name, passed down from her father. She was nothing like her father.





	Mahariel

**Author's Note:**

> eventually, I will have ethelan's entire timeline posted up here. Until then, enjoy the earliest stop in her story.

By the time Ethelan was five, she had already befriended every halla in the clan and had a small gang of tiny elven children following her around. The clan still mourned for Mahariel, but his daughter was more than enough to keep their hands full; with no parents to care for her, Ethelan stayed close to Ashalle, yet every member of the clan played an active role in her rearing. She was a wayfarer already, always wandering away from a watchful eye and dragging the other children with her.

She was a tiny thing, but taller than the others, with wild honey-brown hair and huge deep blue eyes. She had a penchant for adventuring, but not for trouble. She was bright, and independent. The clan held its breath and waited for signs of Mahariel to show in her. They never quite came the way they expected.

 

By the time Ethelan was ten, she had given up trying to figure out June’s knot and turned her mind toward the pursuit of hunting. The clan was skeptical at first; she belonged with the halla, anyone with eyes could see that, but there was no stopping the little Mahariel once she set her mind to something. It was Tamlen’s influence on her, surely. Those two were an uncontrollable pair, always leading Fenarel and the others into mischief.

She was still taller than her peers, but had no skill with a bow. Still, she practiced and practiced, and if she slowly improved, only her proud grin would say it. She didn’t like killing animals, but she did like getting to move around in the forest and protect her clan from danger. Hahren Paivel figured they shouldn’t tell her any more about her father, lest she try to take on the Avvar next.

 

By the time Ethelan was fifteen, she was just as competent with a bow as any respectable apprentice, and she desperately wanted a dog. She had a tendency to hunt too far from camp and lollygag on her own among the branches until one of her friends stumbled upon her and led her away from the world. She was fascinated by the shemlen she encountered from time to time, and she wanted to befriend their big war hounds. Ever her mind was turned to the world which she could not wander.

She was now shorter than all of the other children, and she wore her nappy golden hair short, with several chunks rolled into mats. Not long after she did it up in this way, Merrill followed suit, blushing and watching her from behind her books and pretending not to notice Ethelan doing the same with her bow. If Ethelan realized she was doing this, and wasn’t simply encouraging Tamlen’s own crush, she made no indication. She was well past the age where she could show magic, and the clan released a silent breath of relief that she was not like her father.

 

By the time Ethelan was nineteen, she had earned her vallaslin and a rightful place amongst the clan’s hunters. To many’s surprise, she chose to bear the symbol of Elgar’nan, just as her father had before her. Not for vengeance, but for light, she explained. A light to lead her to true Dalish culture. The Keeper and Hahren Paivel saw it for was it was: a tether to her clan when her feet kept pulling her away. Dark times were brewing; the light would serve her well.

She was a young woman now, short and strong and plain, with hair the color of honey – it might’ve been blonde beneath the dirt and sun and bracken highlights – and eyes bluer than the evening sky. She led her gang of new Dalish adults around on silly adventures still, and if Tamlen stayed closer to her than he had in years before, she didn’t complain. If her eyes got moony when she looked at him, he didn’t complain. Fenarel started a betting pool amongst a few other clanmates to determine when they would finally bond. It was safe. It was agreeable. She was not like her father.

 

By the time Ethelan was twenty, she had stopped a Blight, made a king, and lost a clan. Her wandering had taken her too far, and it had cost her everything. It was her heart that had led her along, tying her to the king who could not have her and the nobility of the nation that would not, and she didn’t know it, but she was just like her father. A long, long time ago, he had been named for the Emerald Knight who had founded his clan. She was named for him, and that was the name the world knew her as.

She was a Commander of the Grey now, a tad paler than an Emerald Knight and a bit more destructive than a Keeper, but still the same short, lithe, honey-haired blue-eyed little girl who had wandered among the halla at the age of five. She was turbulent and troubled, but she was bright and independent, and, like her father had been before her, she was a leader. More than that, even.

 

By the time Ethelan was free to wander where she would, she was a Hero.   


End file.
